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On November 19, 2019, Third International Conference “Strategic Visions of Russia – India Relations and Changes in the World Order” was launched in Moscow. The conference is organized by Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA). The aim of RIAC and ICWA joint conference is to develop practical recommendations for improving the mechanisms of Russia-India interaction in bilateral and multilateral formats taking into account long-term global development trends. The conference has been held since 2017 successively in Moscow and New Delhi.

On November 19, 2019, Third International Conference “Strategic Visions of Russia – India Relations and Changes in the World Order” was launched in Moscow. The conference is organized by Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA). The aim of RIAC and ICWA joint conference is to develop practical recommendations for improving the mechanisms of Russia-India interaction in bilateral and multilateral formats taking into account long-term global development trends. The conference has been held since 2017 successively in Moscow and New Delhi.

The speakers at the opening session included: Andrey Kortunov, Director General of Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC); T.C.A. Raghavan, Director General of the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA); Vyacheslav Trubnikov, Member of the Board of Directors of RAS IMEMO, Army General, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation, RIAC Vice-President; and D.B. Venkatesh Varma, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of India to Russia.

In his speech, Andrey Kortunov pointed out the significant untapped potential of Russia-India interaction. Within expert dialog RIAC and ICWA could focus on new areas and opportunities for developing partnerships, such as joint responses to the new industrial revolution, the leap in technology development, and prospects for Russia-India cooperation in Africa. The discussion of BRICS and SCO agendas also seems relevant, especially in the context of holding summits of the associations in Russia in 2020.

Addressing the participants of the discussion T.C.A. RAGHAVAN drew attention to the international background for the development of Russia-India relations, in particular, the issues of interaction at sea in the context of the Indo-Pacific region concept and various approaches to its contours, security threats in South and South-West Asia, and cooperation with China. ICWA Director General also called for a more active discussion on the future of international trade regimes.

In his opening remarks, Vyacheslav Trubnikov assessed the dynamics of Russia-India interaction in 2017–2019 and stressed the importance of the development of ties between the states of India and the regions of Russia, noting, in particular, the agreements reached during the 2019 Eastern Economic Forum.

D.B. Venkatesh Varma emphasized that Russia’s and India’s interests coincide in many topical issues of the international agenda, however, such confluence has yet to be transformed into specific joint projects, and such interested expert discussions can make a significant contribution to this.

On the first working day of the conference, sessions were devoted to Russia-India interaction on global and regional issues, as well as bilateral cooperation in the area of education, science, culture, and the media.

Ivan Timofeev, RIAC Director of Programs, moderated the session, “Scenarios for World Order Dynamics: Views from Russia and India”. In the course of the discussion on long-term trends in world order development, the relations with the United States and China, as well as interaction within BRICS and “Russia — India — China” strategic triangle, reports were made by Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Director General; Denis Alipov, Deputy Director of Second Asian Department of Russian Foreign Ministry; Gleb Ivashentsov, RIAC Vice President, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia; Indrani Talukdar, Research Fellow, ICWA; and Professor Hari Sankar Vasudevan, University of Calcutta.

A wide range of issues was raised during the discussion within the session on “Regional Security and Development: Scope for Russia – India Collaboration”, from opportunities for cooperation in the Arctic to the situation in Afghanistan, and the future of the SCO. Reports were made by Tatiana Shaumyan, Head of the Center for Indian Studies, RAS Institute of Oriental Studies; Andrey Volodin, Chief Research Fellow at Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations of RAS; Aleksey Kupriyanov, Senior Research Fellow at Primakov Institute of World Economy and International Relations of RAS; Boris Volkhonsky, Associate Professor, Institute of Asian and African Countries, Moscow State University; and Chandra Rekha, Research Fellow at Indian Council of World Affairs. The discussion was moderated by Professor Hari Sankar Vasudevan, University of Calcutta.

Russian and Indian experts expressed much interest in the session “Bringing Bilateral Ties to a New Level: Education, Science, Culture, Media”, moderated by Yelena Karpinskaya, RIAC Deputy Director of Programs. Opinions were expressed by Andrey Kovalenko, Deputy Head of the Department for the Implementation of Youth Programs and the Development of Public Diplomacy at Rossotrudnichestvo; Sergey Serebryany, Director of Meletinsky Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities; Professor Meeta Narain, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Boris Zakharyin, Head of Indian Philology Department, Institute of Asian and African Countries, Moscow State University; Dr. Chaitanya Giri, Gateway House Fellow of Space and Ocean Studies Program; and other specialists. Particular attention was paid to the problems of interaction in education and promising areas of scientific cooperation development.

On November 20, the sessions of RIAC and ICWA conference will focus on the issues of trade and economic cooperation and the prospects for joint projects in the Russian Far East.

Opening Video

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